Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday pledged an "
appropriate and proportionate
"
response
to "
any Israeli airstrike on Lebanon,
" after a surge of fever this week between the two enemies at the border.
Read also: One year after the explosion, Lebanon remains paralyzed by impunity and carelessness
Israel carried out its first airstrikes on Lebanon on Thursday since 2014 after the unclaimed firing of three rockets from Lebanon into its territory.
Hezbollah responded the next day by launching more than ten rockets at the Jewish state, which responded with artillery fire.
"
Our response was linked to the Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, the first in fifteen years,
" Hassan Nasrallah said during a televised speech on the anniversary of the deadly 33-day war that pitted the powerful Shiite movement against Israel in 2006. In 2014, Israeli strikes targeted an area close to the Syrian border.
"
We wish to tell the enemy (...) that any strike by the Israeli air force on Lebanon will inevitably be followed by a response, but in an appropriate and proportionate manner because we wish (...) to protect the country,
”said Hassan Nasrallah.
According to him, the Israeli airstrikes constitute a "
very dangerous development
".
“
We don't want to head for a war but we are prepared for it,
” he added.
Israeli officials also reiterated on Friday that they did not want an escalation "
towards a real war
", but said they were prepared for it.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) warned Friday against "
a very dangerous situation
" and called for an "
immediate
"
ceasefire
.
The United States also urged the Lebanese government to "
quickly prevent
" Hezbollah militants - considered by Washington to be a "
terrorist
"
organization
- from firing rockets at Israel.
The Lebanese government has been managing day-to-day business since its resignation in the wake of the explosion at the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020.
Read also: Lebanon: Shiites denounce the hegemony of Hezbollah
Heavyweight in Lebanese political life supported by Iran, Hezbollah is the only Lebanese faction not to have surrendered after the civil war (1975-1990).
Some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the 2006 war. Since then, both sides have remained at war but have avoided any conflagration.
The exchange of fire on the Lebanese-Israeli border coincided with an upsurge in tensions between the Jewish state and Iran.
